Hope is one of the greatest attitudes a Christian can have. Hope is the belief that the future can be different and better. Even when life seems impossible to cope with, our hope can keep us firmly fixed. It will keep us anchored in a safe harbor until we find out how to change the situations we are facing.
Of course, hope that is not realized will not last long. Proverbs 13:12 tells us, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick” (NKJV). But when we decide to move out of our current position and take steps toward the answers, our hope will move us forward.
Every promise God has given us is a reason for hope. In fact, the purpose of God’s promise is their fulfillment. God’s Word will keep our hopes alive and keep us pressing to see them all come to pass.
It was this kind of hope that kept Israel alive during the years they wandered in the wilderness. After a generation passed, the children of those enslaved in Egypt ended the complaining and excuses of their parents. They were positioned to receive from God and take their place in God’s plan. Although God provided for them during the years they spent in the wilderness, that was not God’s plan or promise. He promised them their own land to inhabit and the strength to possess it.
When they stepped across the Jordan River into the land promised to them, the first city they came to was Jericho. The fortified walls of this city seemed impenetrable. But God would give Joshua a plan that would bring the walls down and place the city in Israel’s hand (Joshua 6:1-5).
Joshua was required to see things that he could not see: that the king, the people, and the city were given to him. He could only see this through the eyes of faith in what God promised to him. Second Corinthians 5:7 says, “For we walk by faith, not by sight.”
God expects us to see things that cannot be seen. Eyes that truly see are uncommon. Proverbs 20:12 says, “The hearing ear and the seeing eye, the Lord has made them both.”
Seeing the unseen is vital to living by faith. We are made to live in the realm of the Spirit as well as the natural visible world. We are expected to see the reality of the Word before we see it in the natural world. Second Corinthians 4:18 says, “While we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal” (NKJV).
If Joshua could see what God wanted him to see, he would be able to possess what God wanted him to possess. We will possess our victory in the same way. We can move from where we are right now to where we want to be. We can allow the words of instruction given to Joshua to help us see how.